TexMessage

Wednesday, December 26

With her retirement from Senate just days away, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is not contemplating a return to her reporter days it seems.

Hutchison, who was not only the first female senator from Texas but also the first onscreen female reporter in Houston, says the media is much different than it used to be.

According to her, today’s media is much more opinionated than when she was a reporter. Here is what she told POLITICO on the current state of the media:

“Unfortunately because of the variety of outlets for people to speak their minds on the Internet and that kind of thing, it’s made the media in general more opinionated and there’s more of a ‘gotcha mentality’ than real reporting.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (AP Photo)

“It’s turning more in that direction, it’s more opinions than reporting. I think it’s very important in mainstream media to survive and I think survival is a concern right now for the media because there’s so many outlets. People don’t read newspapers and they don’t watch regular TV news. So more and more they’re trying to get readership and viewership by stark contrasts and debates and opinions, given by the reporter.

“It’s very important to try to keep fairness and reporting in the system. It’s different than the way it used to be.”